Congratulations to Prof. Michael Shields, who has been selected to receive an Office of Naval Research’s prestigious 2016 Young Investigator Award. The award’s purpose is to support early-career academic researchers whose scientific pursuits show exceptional promise for supporting the Navy and Marine Corps while also promoting professional development.
Shields was selected based on his proposal, “Efficient stochastic simulation-based computational modeling for structural design, reliability, and life-cycle assessment.” Through this research, he will develop novel techniques for the efficient integration and quantification of uncertainty in computational modeling of structural component and system response. These techniques will be employed to improve computational simulation-based design practices for structures of all sort, utilize computational modeling to enhance structural reliability and safety, and demonstrate how these models can be used to assess system-level performance throughout the structure’s life.
Shields is member of the core team for the Center for Integrated Structures Materials Modeling at JHU and a faculty member of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, and also is affiliated with the Systems Institute. His research focuses on the development of stochastic simulation-based methodologies for quantification of uncertainties in computational physical modeling. This work lies at the interface of applied probability and statistics and computational mechanics with the aim of enhancing the computational modeling of physical systems through careful accounting of the uncertainties associated with the physical world, lack of knowledge, and the numerical models themselves. This is achieved by developing new ways in which to simulate stochastic and/or uncertain phenomena that can be coupled with state-of-the-art deterministic computational models.
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